It’s time for the Tigers to start seeing the error of their ways

Jim Leyland said he walked into the losing clubhouse late Thursday night and ordered his Detroit Tigers to turn on the music.

Yet when I walked in a few minutes later, it was silent.

“Are you stunned a little bit, are you down a little bit?” asked Craig Monroe, his voice piercing the quiet. “Of course.”

Jim Leyland said he gathered his losing team together late Thursday night and ordered the Tigers to act as if this were just another game.

Yet the first person I saw was glassy eyed and searching.

“Sometimes you try to do your job,” said Fernando Rodney, pausing. “Then things just happen.”

Jim Leyland, standing ever firm against winds blowing his dream season into a nightmare, insists his Tigers will be fine.

“I don’t want anybody sitting around with their head down,” he said. “To me, that’s the sign of a losing team, and we’re not a losing team.”

Except they are, and they know it.

The St. Louis Cardinals aren’t winning this World Series, the Tigers are losing it.

The Cardinals didn’t win Game 4 Thursday night, the Tigers handed it to them.

Five Cardinals runs that were assisted by Tigers blunders. Four Tigers runs that were hard fought, well-earned, and totally useless.

The scoreboard read 5-4, the Cardinals’ lead is three games to one, and by this time Saturday, you could be reading about one of the biggest weeklong stumbles in World Series history.

The Tigers won’t win this way. The Tigers can’t win this way.

This series is all over, except for the singing.

Errors and Tigers and Errors, Oh My!

Balls are bouncing off gloves and between legs. Outfielder are holding impromptu fire drills -- stopping, dropping and rolling.

And pitchers, well, let’s just say that all Tigers pitchers should be required to show up at Kenny Rogers’ locker before every game with their palms out, pine tar apparently being the only substance that can keep them from throwing the ball to Illinois.

Four games into a World Series, and the most amazing statistic is that the Tigers have already set the record for most World Series errors by pitchers with four.

“We’ve done a few things during the series to either maybe give them a run or give them some extra chances, and they’re obviously a good enough team to take advantage of those,” said Leyland.

A few things? That’s like saying Leyland’s upper lip contains a little hair.

It was so bad Thursday night, the Tigers’ hitters broke out of their slump with 10 knocks, the Tigers pitchers gave up only three earned runs, yet it was the Tigers who ended with outfielders laying on the grass and pitchers hiding in their gloves.

It was so bad, the Tigers blew a 3-0 lead, blew an eighth-inning comeback, and gave up the winning run after one of the best defensive catchers in baseball history allowed a ball to hop between his legs.

It was so bad, well, yeah, there was no music in the Tigers’ clubhouse, while the Cardinals faithful couldn’t stop chanting and pointing.

“Freak things,” said Monroe. “A lot of freak things.”

About the only thing not freaky was the name of the Cardinals’ star, former Angels favorite David Eckstein, who had four hits, two RBIs, the game-winning double, and looked like he always looks.

“Man, that guy grinds,” Monroe said. “I know he’s not the biggest guy, but he’s in the middle of everything.”

Can the good folks of Anaheim finally stop with the “Eck was great, but Orlando Cabrera is a far better player” routine?

Thursday was an example of how Eckstein will always haunt those teams who let him walk.

On this night, though, even his inspiration was flooded by the Tigers’ perspiration. Are those guys tight, or what?

Start in the third inning, with the Tigers leading 3-0, when Carlos Guillen couldn’t handle a throw from Ivan Rodriguez at second base.

Aaron Miles stole the base, and later scored on a two-out double from Eckstein.

“We’re all out there trying to make the plays,” Rodriguez said. “Things just happen.”

Now for the fourth inning, when, in left field, Monroe overran an apparent single that lumbering Scott Rolen turned into a double. Rolen, of course, later scored the second Cardinals run.

“It was a good play, he went for it, I made my best throw, what are you going to do?” said Monroe, asking a question that better fielding would have answered.

What you cannot do, if you are the Tigers in this series, is allow your pitcher to ever again touch a grounder.

Yes, in the seventh inning, a sight that has dominated this series even more than tarp or scarves showed up again.

Eckstein was on second base after center fielder Curtis Granderson fell and spun and turned a leadoff fly ball into a double -- “If I keep my feet, I catch it, but that’s baseball,” Granderson said.

Up stepped So Taguchi, who laid down a bunt that Rodney easily fielded and, well, you know the rest.

He threw the ball as if attempting to qualify for the Olympics in the shotput, lofting it down the right-field line, allowing Eckstein to score.

“I was too close, it was too easy, that’s why I threw it so far,” Rodney said, still searching..

Two outs later -- no surprise here -- Taguchi scored the fourth run.

For their final act, the Tigers stood around in the eighth inning while Miles advanced to second base on a Joel Zumaya wild pitch that Rodriguez should have caught.

This meant Monroe had to play closer than normal for Eckstein, who lined the game-winning double off of Monroe’s glove.

“Tonight, it all bit us,” said Monroe, and he means all of us, America enduring a World Series of unsightly splotches and uncomfortable itching.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Comeback kids

Teams that have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the World Series

1985--Kansas City (AL) 4, St. Louis (NL) 3

* 1979--Pittsburgh (NL) 4, Baltimore (AL) 3

* 1968--Detroit (AL) 4, St. Louis (NL) 3

* 1958--New York (AL) 4, Milwaukee (NL) 3

* 1925--Pittsburgh (NL) 4, Washington (AL) 3

* 1903--Boston (AL) 5, Pittsburgh (NL) 3

Associated Press